


The PORTHOS Protocol

by cyren2132



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Dogs, Fire, Gen, Monsters, Snakes, Trick or Treat: Trick, Water, nightmare scenarios
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 10:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyren2132/pseuds/cyren2132
Summary: Planet Utopia, they'd called it. No one ever asked why.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iwasanartist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwasanartist/gifts).



> Happy Halloween, Iwasanartist! I was so glad to see Enterprise, Reed and Hayes back on your letter this year, because I started this last year and just couldn't get the "science" straight in my head before the deadline passed. I hope you enjoy!

Click click click. Click click click.

Reed sighed and shifted in his chair as the sound of claws across the flooring again shifted his focus from the report he’d been reading.

“Porthos, sit,” he commanded. To his surprise, the captain’s beagle dropped his rear end and sat straight, looking directly at him. Reed nodded his head approvingly. “Good dog.” The praise immediately sent Porthos’s tail into action and he stood up, bounding over to sniff and paw at the amory officer’s leg. Reed shook his head and reached down, maneuvering the dog away and giving him a gentle shove toward the cushion in the corner of the room. “Go lay down.”

Porthos obeyed, crawling atop the cushion and turning three times before plopping down in a circle. If dogs could huff and sulk, Reed was sure Porthos would have been. Reed turned back to his report, but found the backlog of incidents dating back to their first week in the Expanse couldn’t hold his attention. Not while the captain was on the planet’s surface. Reed huffed and tossed the PADD back on his desk.

Planet Utopia, they were calling it. A place so positive and wonderful that even the idea of having a security officer with the landing party was deeply offensive to the inhabitants. Reed had of course made the argument that it sounded far too good to be true: A planet rich in a mineral that, while not quite as effective as Trellium D, would help protect them from spatial anomalies without turning the ship’s first officer into a Vulcan zombie. And the planet has a vibrant ecosystem full of shiny, happy, peace-loving people who would never harm a flea, let alone a person?

Too good to be true.

And yet, the captain adopted a goofy grin and promised everything would be okay. It was so unsettling that Reed had convinced T’Pol and Tucker to escort the captain to sickbay just to make sure everything was on the up and up. But after Phlox issued a clean bill of health, everyone who could spare the time -- minus security and the MACOs -- went planetside for some much needed R and R while the miners recovered enough mineral for them. All for the low cost of some salt and pepper.

In his scans of the planet, Phlox had discovered an element in the air that wouldn’t play nicely with Porthos’s canine biology, and it was on that note that the captain said Reed could watch him as payment for his cheek in dragging him in for a head scan. He might have been joking. Trip insisted that he was, but Reed took no chances, and so now the dog, his food bowl and pillow were all amassed in a corner of Reed’s quarters.

Well, that was when Porthos wasn’t roaming the room’s perimeter with his clicking clacking claws, sniffing the air and whining at nothing. Reed picked the PADD back up and tried once again to focus. It worked for a little while. He’d made it through three more reports before a sharp scratching on the door got his attention.

“PORTHOS!” the dog turned from his spot at the door and woofed, turned back to the door and scratched again, standing up on his hind legs and dragging his front feet back to the floor. Small scratch marks appeared in the paint. Then he ran over to Reed, circled his chair and ran back to the door, almost like he was trying to get Reed to follow. 

The curiousness of it made Reed forget the reports -- and the scratches that maintenance would throw a fit over if they ever saw. Cautiously, he went to the door and cracked it open. He didn’t see anything when he peered out. In fact, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at all, and he was just about to admonish his own silliness he heard someone speak.

“Malcolm.” The whisper was faint. Barely a spoken word, even. More like a breath drifting from the ventilation system. “Malcolm,” the voice came again.

“Trip?” Reed stepped into the hallway. There were few people aboard the Enterprise who would refer to him by his first name, and he wouldn’t put it past the engineer to try to levy a prank while the ship was so empty.

He shook his head and nodded at Porthos, about to assume he was just imagining things when the voice came again.

"Help me."

There were a lot of things Reed could ignore, but a call for help wasn't one of them. His whole body tensed when he heard it, and he stepped completely into the hallway. Porthos muscled his body through the crack of the door before Reed could close it, and something made him feel like he didn’t have time to push the dog back inside.

"Who's there?" Reed said firmly.

"Help me, Malcolm." At the first word, Reed looked down, focusing his hearing and by the time the third faded away, he'd locked down a direction. Reed followed the voice down the corridor. It kept calling for him, begging for help. He rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

There was a man at the far end of the hall. His back was to Reed, but even from that distance, he recognized a full Naval dress uniform when he saw one. The man was soaking wet and a pool of water sat at his feet, slowly spreading down the hall. 

“Sir?” Reed called out. “Do you need assistance?” The man didn’t move and Reed took a few cautious steps down the corridor. Porthos whined behind him. “Sir, keep your hands where I can see them, and turn around.” Reed thought he’d appropriated a properly commanding tone even as he approached out of uniform and weaponless, but still the man didn’t move. 

As Reed drew closer, he could see the man wasn’t just soaked like a faucet had gone haywire. No, if anything, the water seemed to be coming from him, streaming from under his sleeves, oozing from the tops of his boots.

Reed stepped in a puddle and felt a chill to his bones, but nevertheless, he continued.

“SIR-”

The man spun around, faster than Reed would have thought possible, and his heart skipped a beat as a pale, bloated face stared back at him, clammy with hints of seaweed and decay. And yet, it was the droplets of water clinging to a metal name tag that caught his attention. “R. Reed” it read. Reed forced himself to look at the face.  He was so familiar.

“Help me, Malcolm,” he said, but with each word, water gurgled from his mouth. Reed stepped back as it -- because it surely wasn’t a man -- reached for him. It stepped forward and Reed took another step back. The mouth opened in a grotesque scream as it rushed forward. In his retreat, Reed slipped in a puddle, falling to the floor. He couldn’t get traction to stand -- all he could do was scoot backward as it advanced. The outstretched arm dropped to the floor and now at Reed’s new eye level the creature scurried toward him. As it leaped forward, the last visages of what couldn’t possibly have been R. Reed disappeared into what could only be described as a giant wall of water.

Reed couldn’t move. The anticipation of all that water in his nose and his throat left him frozen, and in that moment, in a star ship miles above the surface of Planet Utopia, Malcolm Reed was certain he was going to drown.

The first vapors of mist had just reached his face when Reed felt a pair of hands grab him under the arms and yank him around the corner as the water raced past, slammed into the wall and ricocheted off in the other direction. Wisps of black smoke followed it, almost as if the water itself was taking a new form.

Porthos licked Reed’s face and wagged his tail as Reed struggled to untangle his limbs from whoever has pulled him to safety, but whether it was adrenaline or fear or something else entirely it took a moment before they were free and he recognized Major Hayes sitting next to him, one arm draped over his shoulder.

“What was that thing?” Hayes asked.

“I don’t...I don’t know.” Reed shook his head, trying to expel the last vestiges of terror from the recesses of his mind.  “Thank you,” he said finally.

“Don’t mention it,” Hayes clapped Reed on the shoulder and stood, offering him a hand up. Once he was on his feet, he went directly to a comm unit and pushed a button.

“Reed to security,” he said. No answer. “Reed to Bridge.”  Reed paused for a moment, trying to remember who was scheduled for duty that night. “Reed to Harrington.” All he got was static.

“It’s no use,” Hayes said. “I got the same thing when I tried to call my team from the gym when I saw…” Hayes voice faded to silence.

“What did you see, Major?” Reed asked.

“I…” Hayes stopped, stumbling for the right words. “If I didn’t know better I’d say it was a monster. It was...it doesn’t matter what it was,” he said finally. “There’s an intruder on the ship, and I couldn’t reach anyone. I was on my way to the armory when I found you.”

“Right.” Reed wiped the sweat and mist from his face. “Right, we should continue that way and see if we find anyone along the way. And hopefully not any more of...whatever that was.”

Hayes nodded, and they had taken several steps before the clickety clack of Porthos’s claws caught his attention.

“Is that the captain’s dog?”

“Yes.”  Reed kept his eyes straight ahead, but he could feel Major Hayes staring at him.

“Why is…”

“It’s a long story.”

“Fair enough.”

They continued on their way, moving slowly and deliberately, peeking around corners as they went in case the intruder was waiting. They were almost to the armory. Less than three meters from the door when Porthos darted in front them, nearly tripping Reed and blocking their path.

“Porthos, move.” The dog did nothing “Porthos. Heel!” The dog blinked at them and yawned. Finally Reed stuck his leg out and started to shove the dog out of the way. It worked, at first. But Reed hadn’t taken more than a step when Porthos grabbed the leg of his pants and tugged backward.

“Porthos, stop it. Right now! Porthos, NO.”

“DROP IT!” Hayes yelled in a tone that almost -- but not quite -- made Reed jump. Porthos immediately let go of Reed’s leg and took a few steps back and sat down, and if a dog could look sad, Porthos was the saddest of all.

Reed turned to Hayes who only smiled insufferably and shrugged his shoulders.

“Just have to know how to talk to dogs,” he said.

“He was obeying me perfectly fine earlier, Reed said tersely as continued down the corridor. “And I’ll have you know, my family has had dogs my ent-” Reed stopped suddenly, yelped in pain and dropped to the floor. The faint shimmering of some sort of force field dissipated into nothingness as Hayes leaped backward to avoid a similar fate.

“Lieutenant are you all right?” he asked.

“I can’t feel my nose,” Reed said, nearing a panic. “I can’t feel my nose, is my nose-”

“Your nose is fine,” Hayes said he dropped to one knee. “Can you ever feel your nose?”

For a second, Reed just looked at him.before the edges of his mouth ticked up in a slight smile.

“Fair point,” he said. Reed moved to stand, but all he could manage was a confused wince.

“What’s wrong?”

“My arm. I can’t move it.”

Hayes laid his palm on Reed’s forearm. 

“Can you feel that?"

“Barely. It’s all gone numb.” 

Hayes rubbed vigorously on Reed’s arm until the security officer cried out.

“Ach, pins and needles,” he grunted but was finally able to bend his fingers, clenching and unclenching his fist as feeling started to return. With a little help, Reed rose to his feet, giving Porthos a scratch behind the ear as he did. 

“Guess that way’s out,” Hayes said. “Looks like we’re taking the long way.”

The two men and one dog turned tail and headed back the way they came. A different juncture here, a climb through a Jefferies tube to a different deck there, and soon they were on their way to being able to reach the armory from a different direction. They’d have to climb back down to the right deck of course. Whoever designed this ship must have had a thing for mazes Reed thought as he lowered himself back onto the proper deck and reached up to take Porthos from Hayes’ arms. They’d tried to get the dog to stay at Hayes’ quarters as they passed them, but he was stubborn and wouldn’t go. And once they reached the hatch taking them up a level, they realized it wouldn’t be a very good idea to leave the captain’s prize beagle wandering the corridors alone while there was …  _ something  _ … afoot.

Fortunately, Porthos was not a heavy dog.

Reed set Porthos on the ground, away from the shaft, as Hayes jumped down. 

They continued on their way to the armory. Coming from the new direction left them remarkably incident free for several minutes. It was only a whine from Porthos that made them stop.

“What is it boy?” Hayes said in a tone that reminded Reed rather forcefully of that old early 20th century television program about a boy and his dog. At least on Enterprise he was fairly certain there were no wells to fall down.

Porthos walked scurried to a section of the bulkhead and began scratching at the plating along the wall, whimpering as he went. It was only when he got to one specific section that he stopped and sat down with his front legs on the curved wall, scratching nonstop, almost like he was digging for something.

Cautiously, Reed and Hayes approached the spot. A small indent at the edge of the panel marked it as removable -- one of the few holes in a long line of ductwork and cables that could allow someone -- or something -- to reach the main deck from the ship’s guts. Reed had just stuck the tips of his fingers into the indentation and begun to pry upward when a sharp banging from beneath the panel caused him, Porthos and Hayes to jump backward. The banging grew louder, and portions of the panel were just barely beginning to buckle and pop up with each hit.

“Let’s uh...let’s get to the armory,” Hayes said, trying his best to mask the shake in his voice with bravado, but Reed could tell it was an act. However, it was one he was all too keen to play along with.

“Agreed,” he said as they moved in that direction, knocking into each other slightly as they went.  They were less than three meters from the armory, and had just rounded the corner when they were hit with a blast of heat that drove them back several steps and a bright light that blinded them for a moment. When their eyes adjusted, they found themselves face to face with .. well … it wasn’t an insectoid, but it was the closest thing Reed could think of to describe it.  An insectoid made of flames and red hot coals and it was advancing toward them.

Quickly, they turned around and ran back the way they’d come. They had just rounded another corner when a second fiery insectoid appeared, blocking their path and moving them closer to the other. Soon, there was nowhere to run. Porthos barked and ran circles around Reed’s legs. Hayes had plastered himself to the opposite wall.

“Can we get around them from that side?!” Reed yelled.  Hayes breathed heavily. His eyes squeezed shut and his whole body was tensed. “MAJOR!”  Hayes’ eyes snapped open and focused on Reed. “Can we get around the side?” 

Hayes turned his head to the left, peering at the advancing creature. Then he turned to the right and did the same. He looked at Reed and shook his head. There was no escape. Reed could feel sweat dripping down his face and his brow. He had just swiped at his eyes, when he saw Hayes jump away from the wall, cradling one arm pink with a burn as he did.

Whether it was instinct or lack of options, they both made their way to the center of the hall until they were standing side by side then back to back. The banging continued on the bulkhead as the fire monsters approached. Everything was loud and hot and Reed thought his brain might explode when the corner of the wall panel burst off. He couldn’t see the being behind it, but he immediately recognized the hose of an extinguisher and the cool, misty foam it spat out, drenching the monster closest to him until it dissipated into nothing.

“Here!” a voice yelled as they shoved the extinguisher through the small hole in the wall. Reed pulled it out and turned toward Hayes and the other advancing creature.

“Get down!” he yelled.

Hayes dropped to the ground, and as soon as he was clear, Reed let loose with the extinguisher, advancing on the creature, pushing it back until it too dissolved into a nothingness.

Reed turned back to Hayes. He was still down, kneeling on the deck, with one hand on the ground for balance and panting heavily as Porthos circled him, nudging into his side and legs, shoving his head under his arm. Reed stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Hayes looked up at him, his eyes unfocused and fearful for only a moment before recognition and order set in.

“Sorry,” he said as he rose to a crouching position. “When I was a kid, the house caught fire and…” he shook his head, unable to say more.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Major,” Reed said softly. Hayes nodded and patted the hand Reed had laid on his shoulder before accepting help to his feet. 

There was another loud bang from the panel that made them both jump.

“Hey, can I get a little help here?!” a woman’s voice called out.  Reed and Hayes both went to the bent panel and tugged until it popped free, revealing a woman in a teal striped jumpsuit crouched amid all the wires and circuitry.

“Ensign…” Reed struggled to place a name to the face. He knew she was someone from Phlox’s staff.

“Cutler,” she answered as she stuck her hands arms through the hole. “You big strong guys wanna help me out of this mess?” They each grabbed an arm and tugged until Cutler was free. It might have been easier if the panel had been properly removed, but they managed, tugging and pulling until they all tumbled back into the rapidly cooling hallway.

As they untangled their limbs and rose to their feet Reed got his first good look at the ensign. She was soft of body but obviously strong of will, and he had no idea how she’d managed to find them and rescue them, but he intended to peek through her file and recommend a commendation when this was all over.

“I guess we owe you a debt of gratitude, Ensign Cutler,” he said.

“Don’t mention it,” she said. “I saw one of those things when I ran into Lt. Kelby, too. Hence, fire extinguisher. And believe me, weird fire monsters are better than…” she closed her eyes and shook the memory off.

“What did you see?” Hayes asked.

“Death.” Cutler squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered. “More like zombies, I guess. I don’t know. But turns out those things,” she nodded at the fire extinguisher “are good for more than putting out fires. Bash to the undead head works pretty good too.”

Hayes and Reed both looked at the extinguisher’s canister. Aside from a scrape or two that could be explained by being shoved through a small hole in the wall, it didn’t look like it had been used as a blunt object against the undead. 

When they pointed that out, she gave them a look that fell just short of an eye roll -- senior officers, and all that -- and grabbed them each by the arm.

“You’ll understand in a minute--” she stopped mid sentence and looked down at their feet. “Is that the captain’s dog?”

“Long story,” Reed and Hayes both said in unison.

“Hm. Okay.” Cutler said before turning back to the hallway. She gave Porthos a quick scratch behind the ear before continuing down the hallway. “Follow me.”

They made a quick stop at the armory and loaded up with phase pistols -- one each for Reed and Hayes. Cutler shook her head and held out a hand, palm first, “I’m not certified on those,” she said.

“Given the circumstances, I think we can let it slide,” Hayes said. “You point and shoot.”

Reed nodded in agreement, but Cutler merely held up the extinguisher.

“Sorry sirs, but I’m good,” she said.

Hayes shook his head and pocketed the pistol -- a backup in case things went really wrong.

“When this is over,” Reed said, “we’re going to take care of your certification.”

“Yes sir,” she said as they left the armory and continued to sickbay. They didn’t run into any more creatures of the water or fire variety along the way, and as they entered sickbay a sense of relief washed over them.

Cutler led them to a small monitor in the corner.

“I noticed something weird about an hour ago,” she said. She tapped a few buttons until a diagram of the planet and the space around it appeared on screen. A colorful swirl, invisible to the naked eye, appeared appeared to emanate from part of the planet, shooting upward and dispersing into space.

“Now look what happens when I expand the image,” Cutler said. She tapped a few more buttons and the image on screen pulled out to show the Enterprise caught right in the middle of the swirling mass.

“What is that?” Reed asked.

“I was running an experiment on the brain waves of a thelosian rat,” Cutler said. “Right now, my scanners are set to pick up delta waves, but these...these are similar, but something else.”

“But they’re brain waves?” Hayes said. “Is it some sort of psychic attack?”

“I don’t think so,” Cutler said. She pushed a few more buttons and the image zoomed in on a portion of the planet. Tiny wisps pulled away, forming tendrils that went to a common point before beginning the funnel into space. It sort of reminded Reed of the candy floss his grandmother would always buy whenever the circus came to town.

“I don’t get it,” Hayes said. “What am I looking at?”

“I think we’re seeing what makes Planet Utopia so utopian,” she said. “Our initial scans of the planet showed a high degree of pollen that didn’t seem to have any allergen affect, so we didn’t worry about it. But once I overlaid the scans, it looks like the pollen is interacting with the waves, attaching to them and carrying them to a central location.” She pointed to where all the tendrils seemed to be congregating before beginning their journey into space.

“And?” Reed asked.

“It’s entirely theoretical and absolutely oversimplified,” Cutler said,  “but I think the pollen is collecting all the bad thoughts and negative energy from the planet, and delivering it to this spot -- maybe it’s manmade, maybe it’s some sort of natural phenomena -- and shooting it into space as some sort of protective measure.”

“So, how does that make everything that’s been happening to us happen?” Hayes asked.

“I think,” Cutler said, “that these brain waves are interacting with our own and manifesting images and situations that align with some of our most negative thoughts and feelings.”

“Manifesting?” Reed said. “Like, it’s not actually real?”

“I don’t know,” Hayes said as he held up his burned arm. “This feels pretty real.”

“Oh, goodness, Major, why didn’t you say something” Cutler said as she steered him to an examination table, sat him down and pulled salve and bandages from a small drawer.

“That’s not made from the secretions of one of Phlox’s creatures is it? I’ll take the burn over bat spit, thanks.”

“Don’t worry, this cream  is 100 percent concocted in an Earth lab as she dabbed it on his skin. “What they made it out of, I have no idea,” she muttered.

“What?” Hayes said Cutler coughed as she wrapped a gauze bandage around Major Hayes’ wound.

“As I was saying, the manifestations may be from our heads -- and may not even be real, if we can overcome them with knowledge of them, I don’t know, but as long as we let ourselves believe they’re real, our minds and our bodies MAKE them real.”

“They...make... them real?”

“You believe the stove is hot, you get burned when you touch it.”

“So...you’re saying we just have to believe it’s not real?” Reed asked.

“Well,” Cutler said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one to stand in front of a zombie, fire monster or tsunami and wish really hard just to test it out.”

“So what do we do?” Hayes said. “How do we get rid of it, and is the bridge compromised?”

“I think the bridge and sickbay are fine,” Cutler said. “Scanning the ship, it looks like the pollen is traveling through the air vents, and those two locations run on their own systems, separate from the rest of the ship.”

“I tried calling the bridge earlier,” Malcolm noted. “I got no response."

“I don’t know,” Cutler said with a shrug. “I’m training to be a doctor not a weird pollen brainwave whisperer.”

“Fair enough.”

“Any idea what we do?” Hayes repeated.

“I think if we close off certain vents, we can corral the pollen to one of the cargo bays or port holes and vent it all back into space. Judging by the way it spreads out, I don’t think it wants to be confined,” Cutler said. “I think it WANTS to dissipate and be harmless.”

“So now it has wants and needs?”

“I don’t know,” Cutler said, unable to restrain the irritation in her voice. “All I know is what I see on these scans and what I can extrapolate from that. It’s all theory and hypotheses, but do you have a better idea?”

“No,” Hayes admitted as he leaned in closer to the diagram of Enterprise. Ideally, they’d make their way to the bridge, but they couldn’t risk contaminating the crew. This was up to them. Together, they studied the map, determined the proper vents to close to get the pollen to migrate to the nearest bay that would shoot them off into space. Once they knew what they were doing, they double checked their weapons and grabbed a more portable fire extinguisher -- just in case -- and headed for the door.

Porthos tried to follow.

“Stay,” Reed and Hayes both said to him, but each try was good for only a brief slowing down before he was at their heels again.

“You can’t come, buddy,” Hayes said. “It’s too dangerous.”

 

The dog looked at him and barked but didn’t stop trying to follow. Hayes looked at Reed and shook his head, out of ideas.

“We are NOT taking the captain’s dog on a mission to vent nightmare inducing brain waves into space,” Reed said testily.

“I didn’t suggest we should,” Hayes shot back.

“Cheese!” Cutler called out. Both men turned to her, as she waved a cube of cheese in the air. “Who wants some cheese?! Does Porthos want cheese?”

The dog turned on his heels with a little “yip!” and ran to Cutler. Reed and Hayes shared a smile for just a moment before she glanced at them and waved pushed her arm in the direction of the door.

“Go on,” she mouthed before turning back to the dog “Who’s a good boy? Is it you? Yes it is you, isn’t it.” 

Cutler’s voice faded to nothing as they exited sickbay and began their mission.

They made it to the first vent without incident and turned the lever to close it. The same was true for the second, third and fourth. It wasn’t until the fifth junction that they ran into trouble. At the fifth vent, a long snake like creature was coiled around the lever, its ends drooping to the floor and along the deck.

Hayes stopped dead in his tracks and took a step back.

“Afraid of snakes, Major?” Reed asked.

“I wouldn’t say afraid. More like ‘have a healthy respect for,” Hayes answered. “I grew up on a farm, lots of copperheads and rattlers about.” Hayes pulled out his phase pistol and aimed at the creature.

“Wait!” 

“What if it’s not real and you just end up fusing the junction box together? Maybe we should just try .. moving around it?” Reed said. Reed dropped his phaser to his side with a smack.

“What if it’s not real, but it bites us and our minds decide it’s full of venom that starts shutting down all our internal organs in a matter of minutes?” Hayes said. “Cutler’s great, but do you really expect her to whip an antivenom in the few seconds we’d have by the time we got back? OR-” Hayes continued over Reed’s raised finger “What if it’s real and is an escaped thing from Phlox’s menagerie? Who knows what it’s for or what it can do to us.”

Both arguments made sense and for a moment they were at a stalemate.

“So… what do we do?” Reed asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think … could we move it somehow?”

“Do YOU want to touch it?”

“No.” Reed raised his phase pistol “I guess that means we’re back to shooting it. Try not to aim directly for the box.”

“Wait.” Hayes said.

“What?” Reed turned to Hayes, whose eyes were following along the spot where the bulkhead met the ceiling. Light poured out through the cracks behind each panel.

“I have an idea,” Hayes said. “Help me with this.” Together they pried paneling off the walls on both sides of a section of hall, revealing long lighted tubes. Hayes tapped on one light to make sure it wasn’t hot and then gave it a twist and a tug until he was holding the meter-long tube in his hand. He motioned to Reed to do the same until they’d pulled four lights, plunging a small section of the hallway in darkness but leaving enough ambient light to not be terrifying.

With one light tube in each hand -- wielding them like batons -- Hayes cautiously approached the front end of the creature.

“You go around back,” he said to Reed, before taking one tube and lightly placing it on the the creature. When it didn’t move, he brought his other tube up and set it near the underside of the creature, near its head. As he pinched the two tubed together, the creature began to wrap itself slowly around the bottom tube and then up over the top one. Hayes tensed, ready the lob the entire rig one direction while diving in the other if it seemed like the snake was about to go darting up the tubes for his head. But instead the snake continued to coil itself around the new items, staying near the top like some sort of sick, snakey lollipop, unravelling itself from the junction box they needed.

It was also getting heavy. 

“See if you can get under it,” Hayes to Reed. “Lift it up, and we’ll try to move it together.”

Reed did as he was told, and the plan worked. When they were fully able to lift the snake from its perch, they slowly walked in tandem, ready to deposit it farther away from where they needed to be. Everything was fine, though exhausting, until they reached the patch of darkness where they’d stolen the lights. As soon as the snake’s skin left the lighted area, it hissed and Hayes could feel its weight shift as it began to uncoil from itself and shimmy up the light. 

“Throw, it throw it,” he said quickly and he and Reed both tossed their tubes simultaneously as far as they could and hurried backward.  The tubes landed almost beyond the dark patch, and as they hit, part of the snake fell off, and bounced into the lighted area beyond where they’d stolen the lights.

As soon as any part of it touched the light, the head turned around and the snake slithered toward it, gaining speed until it was entirely out of the shadows and racing down the hallway away from them.

“I don’t know if that was real, but I’m glad we don’t have to find out,” Hayes said.

"Me too," Reed answered as he turned back to the juncture box, pulled it open and flipped the switch to close the vent in that section. They could hear the metal turn with a grinding squeal, and the air that had been flowing through the tiny grates in the wall died down to nothing. Reed pulled a schematic from his pocket and studied it closely.

"That should be all the vents," he said. "Now all we have to do is chuck the whole lot into space.”

"Right. And how are we doing that again?"

“Well, that’s the fun part,” Reed said. “All the vents  that intersect with the entry point have been redirected to cargo bay 2. We can’t depressurize the cargo bay, or nothing will be ejected. They’ll just float around imitating god knows what. So we have to just vent all the atmosphere in a solid burst, rapidly.

“By opening the doors.”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Aren’t there safety protocols that keep that from being a thing that can happen?”

“Indeed there are, Major.”

Reed led Hayes to the observatory deck of the cargo bay. They didn’t encounter anything bad along the way, which should have made Hayes feel comforted. But instead it just made him worry what it was that would come next. Their path was too easy.

But whether it was luck or the calm before the storm, they entered the small office. A pair of EV suits hung in a small closet.

“We should probably suit up,” Reed said. Hayes groaned inwardly. There were few things he hated more than the confining suits. Of course, one of the things he hated more was the idea of being decompressed and frozen by the vastness of space, so between the two options, the suit’s restrictions were a pretty fair trade off for not dying a horrible death.

Quickly they stepped into the suits, pulled up the arms and helped each other with their shoulder pieces and checked one another’s hoses, giving them a sturdy slap on the back when everything was ready and correct. It felt strange being in the suits without the proper internal suits, but it certainly was easier to breathe without the skin tight garment.

“Everything check out?” Reed asked.

“We should be good,” Hayes said. Though he was standing right next to Reed, his voice sounded far off and tinny through the small ear piece.

Reed stepped up to the bay’s console and stared at the buttons, levers and screens, learning the lay of the land. When he had everything sorted, he began flipping switches.

 

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Hayes asked.

 

“Yes, Major,” Reed said. “Because while my primary interest may be in explosives and weaponry, it seemed prudent to have a backup course of study. Technical engineering was the most broad-spectrum option.”

“Huh.” Hayes said. “I just stuck with things that go boom and bang.”

Reed chuckled as he pushed a final button. A whirr and clang could be heard from the cargo bay.

“There,” Reed said. I think everything in there that can be should be magnetized to the deck. You’ll want to adjust individual gravity plates for the rest before opening the hatch.”

“Aren’t you forgetting about the safety protocols?”

“No,” Reed said as he maneuvered his body to the floor and under the console. I should be able to bypass them from here, allowing for a manual open without prior depressurization out there.” Reed grunted as he twisted, pulled and swapped several relays, not expecting how the extra weight and padding of the EV suit would affect his dexterity.

“Maybe you should have done this before we got suited up,” Hayes said.

“Yes, well,” Reed said as he poked his head out from under the console, “it was only a backup course of study.” Hayes cocked his head to the side as Reed returned to the console’s underbelly.

“Suits were a good call,” Hayes said after absorbing the new information and its implications.

“Indeed,” Malcolm said softly as he twisted a particularly uncooperative relay. Finally it turned with a groan and the lights above and under the console flickered slightly before holding steady.

“That should do it,” Malcolm said as he emerged. “Now, you’ll want to make sure your boots are locked down before opening the hatch. I’ll be monitoring from here. Once the doors are open, they should all be blasted out, and I can close the bay doors.

“What will I be doing?”

“Hanging on for dear life, I imagine. Those boots aren’t really meant for this.

“Great! Sounds like a plan, nice chat,” Hayes said as he clapped Reed on the shoulder. But whatever bravado he was able to muster was dulled as he stood in front of the cargo bay door, took several quick breaths and bounced a few times -- as much as his heavy gear would allow for bouncing, that is. “Okay,” he said after one more breath. Let’s get this over with.”

Reed pushed a button and the door opened. Hayes gave him a tentative thumbs up before stepping through. One more tap closed the door, and Reed watched through the window as Hayes began his heavy shamble across the bay. He stopped a few times along the way, bending down and lifting a small panel in the floor to adjust gravity plating. His hand only got stuck once, but the problem was resolved by undoing his work and grabbing a tool to push the proper button.

Hayes was halfway to the lever when his voice came through over the speaker in Malcom’s ear.

  
“Hey, Reed,” he said, “There’s not a massive fire brewing by shuttlepod one is there?”

“No fires, major,” he said, trying to sound a comforting as he could.

“And no python nest with one angry mother coiling around it to my left?”

“No snakes, either,” Reed said. “It’s just the brainwaves making you see things.”

“Right. Right, just the brainwaves,” Hayes said as he kept moving, slower than he had before. “Nothing there at all.” He stopped once and drew a sharp breath.

“You all right in there?”

“Y...yeah,” Hayes answered. “I know no angry mama just flew at me. Because she’s not really there.”

“That’s right, Reed said. It’s all in your mind.”

“All in my mind,” Hayes repeated. He continued muttering to himself about all the things that certainly weren’t there as he made his way across the cargo bay, and soon Malcolm felt like an intruder listening to the soothing words. He occupied himself by picking up a hand device and linking it to the control panel in front of him, instead watching the meter progress  as more operations became possible by console or handlink..

The green bar had just reached 100 percent when Hayes’s voice came over the radio. 

“Okay, I’m at the lever.”

“Lock your boots down.”

“Why can’t I just adjust the the grav plating where I’m standing?”

“You wouldn’t be able to raise your arm and the lever most certainly wouldn’t move. You want to lock your boots down.”

“Okay, okay. Geez.”  Hayes bent down and pushed a button on his boots. With a clang, the toes and heels stuck just a little bit harder to the metal flooring.

“There’s a handrail next to you,” Reed said. “Grab tight. By my calculations, it’s going to take at least 15 seconds to vent the room.”

“Sounds like fun,” Hayes said, but the words couldn’t mask the fear-tinged tone. With one hand firmly gripping the rail, the other reached for the lever. He mumbled what might have been a silent prayer as he tugged downward. 

Nothing happened. The lever wouldn’t budge. Hayes pulled again but got the same result. Hesitantly he let go of the railing and with both arms pulled at the lever.

“Hey, Reed, are you sure there’s not a lock on this thing?”

“Positive. You just need to pull it.”

“I am pulling it,” Hayes said through gritted teeth.” He reached out and pulled once more, struggling until his face turned red. “I don’t think whoever built this ship wanted people to be able to do this, Lieutenant!”

“Oh, come on now, are you sure that’s not just your fear of being sucked into space talking.”

“It’s a valid, healthy fear, but yes-”

“A valid healthy fear that your mind is making real-”

“Are you saying I’m too compromised to complete this mission? Because if you think I am, why don’t you haul your scrawny ass down here and-”

“Oh, come on, Major, are you a MACO or are you a mouse?!”

Hayes huffed over the the denigration and stepped back up the lever, grabbing it with both hands and tugging with a grunt that turned to a yell that left his face red and sweating, but the lever moved. Not much, only about halfway, but enough that he could get a better angle and try again.

The cargo bay doors opened with an immediate woosh that sent Hayes’ top half tumbling forward as he reached back hastily to grab the guard rail with a swear dying on his lips as he did so.

“How long’s this going to take?!” Hayes yelled into his microphone.

“Looks like...10 more seconds,” Reed called. 

Reed watched the meters as the levels dropped. If anything they seemed to be moving more slowly than they had been. 

“What’s going on in there?!”

“I don’t...I don’t know! I don’t understand…”

“Reed!”

“All right, I’m closing them,” Reed said. The numbers said there was still pollen in there, but he couldn’t possibly understand how. It had to be a flaw in the meter. Reed raised his hand to close the doors, but...nothing made sense. The console that had been perfectly fine a second ago was now full of gibberish. No dials were where they should have been, and Reed felt his vision slowly begin to darken the harder he squinted at the panel.

“Now Lieutenant!”

“I don’t...I can’t…”

Reed looked out the observatory window and what he saw made his blood chill. The major’s boots demagnetized, whipping him end over end with nothing but the strength of his arms holding him in the ship.

“Ma...Major is that-”

“THIS IS REAL! THIS IS REAL! SHUT THE DOORS!”

Reed looked down at the console again but still couldn’t make heads or tails out of it on the console or his handlink. Finally, he tugged the handlink into his belt and grabbed a phase pistol. He still knew how those worked.

He took aim at the door into the bay, angling himself just so. If everything went right, as soon as the pistol broke through the door, the vacuum of space would take care of the rest, shooting it -- and Malcolm -- into the bay. And as soon as that happened, emergency bulkheads would drop -- should drop -- protecting the rest of the observatory as it recompressed. Reed just hoped that he could get to Hayes by some miracle and then by an even greater miracle manually close the cargo bay doors.

Reed fired, and for a second it looked like nothing happened but then a small dot of red started to appear in the center of the door and radiate outward, growing brighter and hotter until the slightest of pinholes formed -- and that was enough. The vacuum of space sucked the door out, cooling the area around it and Reed came next, hurtling into the bay at breakneck speeds. Contorting his body, he magnetized his boots on and off and on, trying to direct the curve of his flight. For a moment it reminded him of when he was a boy and his best mate’s dad took him parachute jumping during holiday from school. riding the air currents from the top of the skies to a target on the ground. The fear of splattering back to earth was far less than that of drowning a slow agonizing death in the ocean, and the sport had become one of his favorite pastimes -- and his greatest memories.

But this was harder, and the target wasn’t a giant painted circle in the grass, but Major Hayes, whose fingers were beginning to slip.

Please, Reed thought. Please work.

He was almost to Hayes when he realized he was off course. He was going to blow right past the major.

“Major, you need to let go,” he called into his microphone.

“WHAT, ARE YOU INSANE?!!”

“Trust me! Let go….NOW!”

To his surprise, Hayes let go of the railing and as he hurtled for the blackness of space, he was perfectly aligned for Reed’s  intercept course. They slammed into each other, and Reed twisted his body, reactivated his boots, and they both banged into the cargo bay wall, feet first, with such force that it dropped Malcolm to his knees. Hayes clung to Malcolm’s torso, but Reed could feel him slipping away. Quickly he reached for his belt and tapped a few buttons with his thumb. He could feel it first in his knee, then his hand as it pressed firmly against the bay wall.

As the gravity plating pulled him closer to the wall, Hayes was left sandwiched perpendicular between the metal plating and Reed’s body, like two links in a chain. But between the changing gravity, the vacuum and the nightmare that was everything around them, Reed was late stopping the adjustment, resulting in a gravity that was stronger than they ever would have normally been exposed to. He could feel the oxygen tube in his suit constricting and a tightness in his chest. He was beginning to see spots, and he must have been hearing things because-

“ARF! ARF! ARF!” 

“Por- Oh my gosh!”

Though it pained him to do so, Reed turned his eyes to the observatory window. Porthos was on the control panel, staring into the bay and Ensign Cutler was next to him, shuffling through PADDs until she found the right one, scanned its contents and then looked frantically over the panel, turning dials and pushing buttons until the cargo door bays closed  and atmosphere began to vent back into the bay.

Once the doors were closed and there was no more fear of being sucked into space, Reed pushed a button on his handlink. It was only when he and Major Hayes had already began their 15-foot drop to the floor and landed in a tumbled jumbled mess that he realized he could have taken a little more care in adjusting the gravity back to normal.

Reed tilted his head as best he could in Hayes’ direction. It was about all he could do given the half a MACO that was still splayed across his legs.

“All right, Major?”

“I’ve been better,” Hayes said with a groan as he rolled off of Reed. “On the other hand, I’ve been a lot worse.” Something about the phrase struck Reed as particularly funny, and he found himself lost in a chittering giggle fest, slapping at Hayes’ arm as he laughed along.

“You guys all right down there?” Ensign Culter’s voice called out through the earpiece. Reed flashed her a thumbs up as he and Hayes helped each other two their feet. He was just about to remove his helmet when her voice rang out again “I wouldn’t do that! The cargo bay is still repressurizing!”

He nodded at her and instead walked the perimeter and helped Hayes reset all the grav plating to normal settings. They had just finished when Cutler’s voice came over the speaker again. “You guys should be good!”

“Oh, thank god,” Reed said as he undid his helmet and pulled it from his head. Porthos came running into the room straight for them, yip yapping the whole way with his tail wagging furiously.

“Hey there, boy!” Hayes said as he dropped to one knee and ruffled the dog’s fur. “How’d you end up here?”

“Turns out beagles can jump really high when they want something,” Cutler said as she walked into the room. “He hit the button and was out the door before I even knew what was going on. Good thing too, because he came right here.”

“He-ey! Great work, buddy!” Hayes said to the dog as he patted his side.  He gave the dog one one more ear ruffle before turning the Cutler. “And the rest of the ship?”

“All fine. Once you guys got all the particles in here and started venting them, a lot of the problems we were having cleared up and I was able to contact the bridge. They moved the ship out of the way and contacted the surface. Everyone’s fine down there and they apologized profusely. They had no idea this was going on.”

“But we’re good now?” Reed asked again, not wanting for a second to miss the good news.

“We’re good.”


	2. Chapter 2

Reed was back at his desk. The click clacking of Porthos’ claws across the deck plating was still noticeable but far less irritating after all they’d been through. He reached down when Porthos passed and rubbed the dog’s head, even slipping him a cube of contraband cheese.

“Don’t tell anyone,” he whispered, almost unable to believe he’d taken on Hayes’ habit of talking to the animal like he were a person. Reed turned back to the PADDs strewn across his desk. Most were from old reports from the captain but one was a proposal he’d been working on almost since he got back to his quarters. All he needed was a catchy title.

He’d just settled in to think on it some more when the chime at his door rang. Now who could that be? The away teams had opted to stay on the surface until morning, so it couldn’t have been the captain to pick up Porthos.

Reed opened the door and was surprised to see Major Hayes standing there, a bottle of amber liquid in one hand  and two glasses in the other.

“Can I help you?”

Hayes held up the drink and glasses.

“I realized I never thanked you for saving my life back there,” he said. “Have a drink?” Reed’s expression must have betrayed his thoughts because the next words out of the major’s mouth were “Come on, Lieutenant. We’re both off duty and it’s been a hell of a day.”

“Well,” Reed said, “I can’t argue with that,” and invited the major in. Hayes had just poured two glasses and handed one to him, taking a sip when he looked down at the desk.

“Are you seriously working right now?  I think you’ve earned a break.”

Reed couldn’t help but laugh.

“Actually I’m working on a new protocol to present to Starfleet when we get back -- assuming we get back that is --”

“Ever the optimist,” Hayes said. “So, what’s your big plan?”

Reed grinned as he pointed to the PADDS.

“I’ve been going over all these old logs from the captain,” Reed said. “The number of times he begins reports with ‘Porthos heard something’ or ‘Porthos alerted me to this’ or ‘Porthos barked at that and then all manner of hell broke loose,’ is comparatively large and I started to wonder if there was something about the canine physiology that enables them to detect threats our sensors are slow to realize. So, I’m proposing a study into that and, if it holds, creating a service dog position on all star ships.”

“Does the dog get a uniform?”

Reed shot Hayes a look.

“Kidding! I’m kidding” Hayes said with a smile and a laugh. “I think it sounds like a great idea. Does this plan of yours have a name?

That's the thing" Reed said. "I feel like it's out there enough of an idea that it needs something catchy to get approval and I'm at a bit of a loss."

"Let me see what you've got." Hayes took a look at the screen. "How about this?" He changed a few words but kept the same idea. Synonyms, really. But...

"Puppy? Honestly, Major."

"Look closer. Read it aloud."

Reed squinted at the screen.

"Puppy-Ordered Response Toward Humanity's Ongoing Survival?"

"The PORTHOS Protocol."

Reed broke out into a grin and downed his drink in one go.

"It’s perfect,." he said. Hayes smiled and raised the bottle before refilling his glass.

Porthos yipped his approval, turned three times and settled into a spot on his bed, and took a much deserved nap.


End file.
